


sanctuary

by olleetherogue



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 00:02:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25674001
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olleetherogue/pseuds/olleetherogue
Summary: or, "Gender is just so silly!"--a short story of non-binary luna at the great lake with their friend ginny <3
Relationships: Luna Lovegood & Ginny Weasley
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8
Collections: Trans Wizard Tournament 2020





	sanctuary

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lincyclopedia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lincyclopedia/gifts).



> luna uses both she/her and they/them in this work!

Luna always felt safest near the Great Lake, especially now: with no company save for the lonesome trees, wind troubling the water, and tiny, persistent ants crawling up their legs, which she kept pushing away, gently but also persistently (she was not a big fan of tickling). Lately she’s been feeling more and more weird around people; never completely at ease around others, now they just really wished to not be perceived by anyone else. They had been drawing, or trying to at least, for the past hour or so, their fingers all smeared with yellow, blue, green paints. Nothing was turning out as she wanted it to, and there was a low humming sensation of anxiety that has settled in between their chest and stomach some time ago, and they were trying to figure out if the two were connected.

Getting up to wash their hands and looking around, Luna spotted a flame of familiar ginger hair, Ginny walking towards them; they smiled, kneeled at the lake, and noticed that it was not only her fingers that had paint on them, but all of her face and parts of hair. Washing what they could, and sending their greetings to the lake-dwellers while washing her face by submerging it into the cold water, Luna felt a bit of a calming chill (which, maybe, was also connected to seeing her friend very soon).

When Luna got their head out of the water and turned around, sending water drops everywhere, Ginny flopped next to the tree and the thick papers, calling out, “Hey there! You’re like a wet dog,” there was no menace behind it. “How’s the art going?”, Ginny immediately took one of the papers to examine it, turning it around. “What’s that?”

Hands wet, face cool from the wind, water dripping from the strands, Luna carefully sat down next to her.

“Hey. You can ask the art itself, if you wish to know how it’s doing,” Ginny laughed, and if she did ask, she did so silently. “But I’m... experimenting,” Luna shrugged, her head falling back against the trunk of the tree, in a sort of exasperated look.

“Mm. How are you?” Ginny elbowed her friend. “Still feeling weird?”

Luna shrugged again, this time with just one shoulder; then nodded.

“Do you want to talk about it?” Ginny was still looking at the pictures Luna drew, now a second, a third one in her hand.

“I don’t know.”

They both stayed silent for some time.

“It’s just,” Luna sighed. “I get anxious around people. Even more than before, I mean, and it doesn’t leave me, this feeling.”

“Mm, yeah,” Ginny hummed, now looking at Luna.

“I just don’t really want to, I don’t know. Be seen by other people, if that makes sense.” Then, looking at Ginny, she added, “Well, most people. You are okay.”

“I _am_ flattered. But if you want some alone time, let me know and I’ll-” she finger-gunned to the direction of the castle.

“No, no. Stay.”

And so they both stayed, each doing their own thing in the company of another for several minutes.

“Gender is just so silly, you know? I never got it.”

Ginny hummed.

“And how can you tell? How _does_ one know?” Luna continued, fingers fidgeting, tearing off the grass around them. “Like how do you know you’re a girl?”

“Oh, uhm. It’s a feeling I have. I am not sure how to describe it. Like, I feel okay with she/her pronouns, and I just can’t imagine myself as anything else.”

Luna hummed, and they stayed silent again, looking at the landscape, the lake, the grass; the conversation was not finished, clearly, and Ginny was waiting.

“I’m really not sure. I just feel weird.”

“Yeah.”

“And I don’t mind she/her pronouns. I quite like them. But I also would not call myself a girl. No.”

“Mmm.”

“And I just don’t want others to see me as a girl.”

“Yeah.”

After more quiet thoughts, Ginny asked, “What about he/him?”

Luna considered for a bit. “No. I don’t think so.”

Ginny nodded. “And they/them?”

Luna, again, gave it some thought. “Maybe. I am not sure, I’d have to try it first.”

“Easily done! If you want to.” Ginny elbowed them again. “But yeah, gender _is_ very silly.”

She looked at Luna, warm eyes meeting tired eyes, blinking slowly, smiling, their heads leaning against each other, eyes now closed. “You’re really cool, Luna, you know?”

“Of course I do,” they nudged her with their shoulder.

“Maybe you’re just too cool to have a gender.” They both laughed and leaned against the tree.

The bell rang in the distance, and they both got up, silently, hand in a loving hand, warm feeling of relief spreading from the point of fingers intertwining, Luna quietly smiling, and walked towards the castle.


End file.
